In 1981, the Fraser government covertly agreed to allow the US to test fire MX intercontinental ballistic missiles that would land in the Tasman Sea, about 220 kilometres off Tasmania.

The cabinet documents from 1984 and 1985, released by the National Archives today, show in January 1985 the Hawke administration's security committee agreed to honour the Fraser deal so long as the splashdown zone was in international waters.

The committee also agreed that if the government was asked to explain its position, it would stress the deal was not a precedent.

Mr Hawke then announced US planes would be able to land in Australia to monitor the missile.

But after a fiery public backlash, he withdrew that offer and the missiles were never tested in Australian territory.

You had then a very, very real Cold War situation, a threat from a hegemonistic power, the Soviet Union, and the alliance relationship was necessary and important then.

You haven't got that threat now.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke

Tax push fails

1984 was the year Advance Australia Fair officially became the Australian national anthem and the dollar coin replaced the dollar note.

The year after Mr Hawke led Labor to victory over Andrew Peacock, cabinet documents show his government gave lengthy consideration to a consumption tax and a national identity card.

Both ideas were eventually ditched and Labor campaigned against the Coalition over the GST in the 1990s.

In 1985 though, Mr Hawke's treasurer, Paul Keating, told cabinet the proposal for a 12.5 per cent consumption tax should be considered urgently.

But a 1985 tax summit revealed opposition from business, unions and welfare groups and Mr Hawke decided to drop the plan.

Treasury also cautioned against the tax.

Hawke government frontbencher Susan Ryan recalls that cabinet meetings were intense at the time, and that the issue started to lead to a "divergence of views between Hawke and Keating".

Mr Hawke now says he made the right decision to drop the tax.

He says Mr Keating was in love with the idea, but took the decision to scrap it well.

"It became quite clear to me that it was not politically viable, and while he was disappointed, he put his head down and his arse up and got into it and produced a very good outcome," Mr Hawke said.

Discrimination laws

In 1984, national sex discrimination laws were passed to stop women being sacked because they were married or pregnant.

Cabinet documents show close consideration of a range of affirmative action proposals before Parliament approved the Sex Discrimination Act.

Ms Ryan - the first woman to be sworn into a Labor ministry - says it was one of the most bitter political battles she encountered.

She said in the lead-up to the bill being introduced to Parliament, there was extraordinary controversy about its implications.

"The whole of conservative forces throughout Australia leapt up to try to stop a law that said you shouldn't be sacked because you're a woman, or you shouldn't be sacked because you're pregnant," she said.

"It led to, 'this was the communist revolution, the destruction of the family, of Christianity', and so forth. Well, it turned out not to be."

Tuition fees

Ms Ryan says the re-introduction of tuition fees for university students in the 1980s was one of her lowest points as a politician.

Cabinet documents show finance, treasury and the prime minister's office were all pushing to overrule the Whitlam government decision to abolish tertiary fees.

The government had made an election promise not to institute fees, but Ms Ryan says cabinet discussions in the early '80s laid the groundwork for fees to be reinstated.

"Once the debate had started, it never went away," she said.

"I won a couple of battles. I lost the war.

"In 1987 some innocent little thing called the admin charge, $250 for all tertiary students, was introduced. It was the thin end of the wedge."

Land rights

The federal government was unable to bring the states on board for a national land rights system, but in a symbolic gesture Uluru was handed back to traditional owners.

The papers detail conflict between the Commonwealth and some states about resolving the broader issue of Aboriginal land rights.

There were concerns within cabinet that West Australian premier Brian Burke's opposition to a national system could influence other states.

The government's national plan was put out for public submission and received more than 250 responses, but few were positive.

Cabinet also reported progress on negotiations with Queensland through the then state Aboriginal affairs minister Bob Katter.

Spy laws changed

The cabinet archives outline the government's response to the bungled Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) exercise which was intended to simulate the rescue of a foreign defector from Melbourne's Sheraton Hotel.

Hotel staff had not been advised and assumed the ASIS officers were criminals, leading to a potentially dangerous confrontation where weapons were produced and some ASIS officers were arrested.

There was widespread criticism of the fact the officers were armed with sub-machine guns.

In 1985, cabinet agreed ASIS should not be allowed to hold weapons or carry out covert operations.

Strike fears

The documents also reveal the Hawke government feared an escalating strike at a Northern Territory abattoir had the power to paralyse Australian meat exports.

The Meat Industry Employees Union set up a picket line at the Mudginberri Abattoir on the Alligator River after the union was cut out of pay negotiations for workers.

The action prevented exports from the abattoir and the union threatened a national strike if Commonwealth meat inspectors crossed the picket line.

The documents show the government feared a severe dislocation of exports and domestic meat supplies in New South Wales and South Australia.

The documents warned strike action on a national level could suspend trade at 400 meat works affecting about 20,000 workers as well as livestock producers.

Cabinet agreed not to cross the picket line, and the dispute, which became emblematic of the clash over industrial relations at that time, was settled in 1986.

ABC privatisation

The documents detail strong opposition within the Hawke government to privatising the public broadcasters, the ABC and the SBS, as it dealt with pressures to rein in spending.